


Synchronizing Heartbeats

by StarryIllusions (StrawberrySweetYume)



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, BillCest, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Gore, Multi, implied billdip, past WillDip, polyship, teeth gore mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 10:35:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10512003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberrySweetYume/pseuds/StarryIllusions
Summary: Having a soulmate is supposed to make things easier. One would think having two would be even better.Alas, complications are bound to appear somewhere down the road if one is human, aren't they?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lake Cutie Patootie~](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lake+Cutie+Patootie%7E).



“You lied to me!” The words were laced in hurt and pain, hard to separate from each other, a sort of deep betrayal that stung, flashing blood red and akin to deep bloodied wounds refusing to close. Hurt polluted through rage and washed in waves of disarrayed anger, killing life, denying assuage, infectious and more dangerous than any curse. To cause such suffering, especially to someone so important, had never been the intention of this relationship. Never.

“That’s not true!” The defence was swift, almost rushed. Yet it faltered in front of the lash out, words strong but tone weak, letting in all the troubled feelings of the other, watching them fill cracks, spoil surroundings and rip apart their own truth. “I do lo-“

“Save it.” The words were ground out and rough despite the sweet voice – what an ill-fitting combination – a lash out cutting any more attempts from being made without some sort of negative retribution. The sweet smell of pine coming from the huge Christmas Tree in the middle of the room seemed to have disappeared, overpowered by something foul. The metallic smell of decorations and modern equipment almost felt welcome through the nauseating tension. “If you do, then why can’t you show me my own grimoire!?” The words cut off any defences and tore down all walls, but also appeared to weaken themselves in the process. How many times had they had this fight? Still, this was probably the only time when it had escalated so quickly and so horribly, so many wounds littered about, most just old scabs being roughly opened to the cruelty of their moods. It wasn’t fair. It was his so why was his supposed significant other keeping it from him? Wasn’t that just unfair? Wasn’t that a horrible thing to do? Keep a part of the other to yourself and refuse to give it back out of pure selfishness? Did he not have the right to it? To being complete by it once again finding itself in his care? 

It wasn’t fair!

His significant other bit his lip, a bad little tick he seemed to had, eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly. Just the slightest signs that he was wearing down. 

“I…” 

Wearing down thinner and thinner but not enough, not yet. 

“Don’t believe me?” 

“It wasn’t the right time.” 

Of course, it wasn’t…it was never the right time with him. Was there ever a right with him to begin with? A spark of anger ignited once again, resurfacing his emotions more violently than he would have thought, but that was normal enough as to not be taken into notice by its carrier. Who wouldn’t be mad in this situation? 

“It’s been long enough. I’ve learnt all of your spells, can do everything you asked me to do. What more could you want of me?” There was frustration and pain and want and the tension was becoming dizzying. This whole battle of wills was never supposed to happen. 

“Nothing, I just don’t think it’s…” 

Wise? Right? Enough? 

“You just don’t want to be with me and you might as well say it.” 

There was a certain anger on both sides this time, even if the one originally bearing its lash out only carried the emotion briefly. 

“I do! You know I do.” 

He should have known best.

“Then bring me the grimoire…” The words were calmer now, but there was more weight, a weight his significant other felt tied around his neck and the speaker knew it. “Please.” A small plead, but it was enough. 

“Alright.” The voice sounded defeated, a bit unsure. “I’ll…bring it tonight.” Not as soon as desired, but soon enough. 

“Good. I’ll be waiting.”

The smell of pines slowly, just barely, started returning to the room, but the earlier tension’s own scent still permeated the air to the point of suffocation. Pine wouldn’t cover the scent, however much it tried. Neither minded it. It was a scent they had long since come to tolerate despite their personal wishes. What a terribly foul smell these fights carried. Even as the calmer side of the feud left to get the old book, permeated with secrets and his soulmate’s essence as it was, his stomach made uncomfortable twists and knots at the thought of giving it away. 

What a foul smell…

Touching the book of spells felt familiar at least, from the soft outline of the intricate designs decorating the cover to the amalgamation of papers inside, scattered notes held safely at hand and soft energy radiating throughout it. An old lock stood its ground despite the ages, all covered up in sigils and enchantments, runes its current keeper could trace by heart at this point. Holding the grimoire felt right…the thought of giving it away felt heavy. Every step felt forcefully directed like in a begrudging play, command after command, prompting he had to give himself for each muscle movement as something in the back of his mind told him not to move further. And yet he did, a step in the snow at a time, through the well-oiled gate, along the snowy alley leading to the remote house. His body felt frozen even with the warm clothes he wore. Fingers hurt from clutching the big book to his chest with more power than needed…not as if his body had much power to it anyway. 

The door was cracked open, he noticed once he was close to the entrance. 

Strange.

It was far too cold to leave the door open, but his soulmate had seemed excited at the prospect of finally getting his hands on the grimoire. Perhaps he was impatient? For some reason, he didn’t like the thought of that but pushed down into the catacombs of his mind as he entered, cold clinging to his skin and clothes, snowflakes in his hair. He used his side to push the door open and his foot to close it. This wouldn’t have been his usual way of doing things, he had more finesse than that even with simple tasks, but he didn’t want to let the grimoire go yet. What if this was the last time he held it? His soulmate was a bit selfish, he might not think to give it back or let him hold it again in the future. After all, he had kept it for far too long in his possessions and, even then, it was on borrowed time. 

What right would he have to hold it again after returning it? 

The house itself was surprisingly quiet and cold from having left the door open, a bit like in children’s stories: fairy lights strung along for the festivities, the lights on in the living room where they were to meet, wind bristling past the windows in flurries of snow and the soft shuffles of his body as he toed off his boots. He walked slowly on the carpet towards their meeting point, socks softening the sound of his footsteps, fingers clenched and hurting. It didn’t feel like he had to force himself to move anymore, which was more unnerving than he would have thought. It brought some form of comfort knowing that perhaps he was doing the right thing…but also a terrifying sense of dread. Where had the sense of wrong from earlier gone? Was he truly doing the right thing now? Had the grimoire just changed its mind once they had gotten closer to its master’s energy? 

Sounds that should not have been there carried through the house, making the lithe male stop in his tracks, emotions assaulting him unbidden at the simple association of the voice with its possessor. A tune made itself known through the silence, dissipating it almost entirely. Yes, he always had that about him, didn’t he? So loud and boisterous and terribly off-tune, with lyrics no being with a sane mind would safely attribute. 

“Deck the halls with blood and folly!” Blood? “Tra-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.” That was so off tune it almost hurt his ears. Still, any other time he would have smiled hearing it. This just wasn’t ‘any other time’ and its presence was far more worrying than welcome. “Use a head to go play volley.”

Some sort of impact must have followed because a crash resounded throughout the house. He started running, arriving to the scene in a few long strides, fingers still clenched painfully tight around the grimoire’s sides as he gripped it tightly to himself. That was good. If they hadn’t been, it just might have fallen from his fingers the same way his body fell to its knees as he struggled to comprehend the scene unravelling before him, blood soaking through the thick winter pants.

His soulmate was supposed to be waiting for him in the living room. 

His soulmate was there…

It just wasn’t the soulmate he was expecting. 

Bloodied hands, drips of the thick liquid falling onto the floor from where it clung to skin or pine, a decapitated head held as one would showcase a sculpture on a pedestal and a pair of metallic pliers in another. The blood adorned artist of the gruesome scene turned his head around at the disturbance coming from behind to gaze at the intruder with one joyful golden eye and a hungering hole with a single blue flame in its depths where his other eye was supposed to be. A shark-like grin pulled at his lips as he fixated on the new arrival. Turning around in a smooth motion that should not have been possible with the amount of blood and gore pooled around him, he offered his visitor a clear view of himself and his careful but chaotic artistry. The boy’s stomach dropped along with his heart and it had little to do with the various organs spread out onto the Christmas tree instead of globes, fairy lights and tinsel as he remembered it, nor did it have to do with the pile of teeth the killer in front of him seemed to have placed aside neatly in a crystal candy bowl, just one lone molar remaining to be showcased triumphantly in the pair of pliers. 

“Will! So good of you to finally join me!” Bill greeted, grin not disappearing for even a moment as he tossed Dipper’s head up, catching it by the soft brown hair now partially crusted in blood and simultaneously letting go of the tooth so it could mix with the rest in the candy bowl. “Come help me here, would you? Playing volley with a head isn’t as fun when it keeps clacking or you don’t have who to play with, plus it’s a waste of teeth. You like those right? How about I settle them aside for you? I can cover them up in chocolate and you can try to guess which are real and which are fake later.” Will would have answered but he felt as if he had swallowed his tongue somewhere along the line and the sing-song tone adopted by his counterpart did nothing to bring his voice back. Bill seemed to catch on to that because his smile turned mischievous – some might have even mistaken it for malicious. “Cat got your tongue? I have a spare one, if you want.” He teased, holding up the head with a sort of uncaring pride. The eyes were missing, probably added somewhere in the decorum of the tree, but between the dead plants, fragmented glass figurines and the intense gore clinging from the branches, all topped up with Bill’s presence, it was sincerely hard to grasp onto anything long enough to make sense of it. 

How did Bill even manage to stay so pristine? 

The blood looked more like a decoration on him rather than a taint…

What a stupid thought to have between all this madness.

Unimportant babbles of a dizzy mind trying to process the unexpected.

No wonder Dipper’s grimoire stopped being reluctant to be given away. It couldn’t be given to a foreign power if the foreign power was dead…and Bill had always been an expert on getting rid of someone’s residual spirit energy. 

Bill had always been a possessive, protective and terribly unpredictable soulmate.

“Will?”

Never bad.

“Will~?”

Just so exceedingly and frustratingly baffling.

“Will?” 

The word felt faded and far off. 

Nothing made sense…images blurred. 

When did things ever make sense with Bill? 

Or even with Dipper for that matter?

“Will?”

The voice was clearer, softly muddled by the emotions he could finally grasp onto…care, worry, slight impatience, that specific speck that he identified as the unconditional love he bore only for him. No, wait. Where was the bloodlust and hate and irritability? Where was the joy of killing? Something wasn’t ri-

“Will, I know you can hear me. Get up before I come and drag you out of the dream realm myself.”

Will peered sleepily through his lashes, memories still fresh in his mind and hurting in the very core of his being, just as they had been when he went to sleep. The whole point of this endeavour – this stupid human necessity meant to help you comprehend the happenings of the day and gain energy for your body – had been to restore some order to his jumbled thoughts. Or at the very least calm down enough to not want to cut Bill’s human head off his shoulders and then slowly rip apart his one eye, piece by piece, multiple times, as it reconstructed itself in his Demon form, turning the scene into something similar to what he had seen out of pure anger. Despite that, the only thing he truly felt right then was disoriented as he grasped at his surroundings with little avail and even smaller interest. There was a dim light, a table, a few dark blurry forms and some red in his field of vision. Anything else barely entered his mind regarding gold or black. 

Most of the things around him seemed to be lost in obscurity, but if that was his own fault or simply the room itself was to remain a mystery till a time when he wished to move from the soft bed he was laying down on. Human bodies were such a horrible mess of shapes, functions, hormones, emotions and basically anything else someone could think to put together that wasn’t necessarily there for practicality or aesthetic, as much as for some randomized whim that idiots believed was ‘divine creation’. Bill tended to laugh at that with exceeding amounts of glee, but Will actually enjoyed the emotions such beliefs elicited within humans, given the right situation. Still, emotions weren’t what were bothering Will at the moment, as much as the fragility and slow function of his vessel. It wasn’t unusual to have a vessel, but human ones were so frustrating to deal with. It was why Will lacked the desire to engage in human activities, even mundane ones such as eating or sleeping. They could be enjoyable, but dealing with them on a regular basis was just tiresome. 

Pale eyes had opened up just enough to glance at the room – if even that – before they closed again, momentarily pushing themselves against the pillow in an attempt to ignore the light, however dim. This time there was no sound come to wake him up. It knew it didn’t have to. There was a kindling of patience now, soothing and gentle, a blooming warmth wanting to reach out to him, waiting for him to acknowledge it…it was the absence of what the empathy user was looking for, rather than what he found, that planted that uneasy, vengeful spark somewhere in his own depths. However, he made no move on the outside and Bill, for his own part, waited quietly for some sort of sign that it was alright to approach. His soulmate didn’t blame him for that, on the contrary, he almost commended him. The fogginess of sleep was still in his mind and on his eyelids, weighting down his body just as he had intended for it to do from the very beginning, but he was starting to quickly recall everything. 

The dream…reality was still close at hand when speaking within the grounds of a human’s concept of time. Seeing it again through his mind’s eye only helped sharpen earlier sensations, his feelings and the gruesome details he had witnessed rather than dull them down as he had intended. And now that he was awake he could recall the rest as well. Specifically, he recalled the outlash his counterpart had had to deal with the moment he got his wits about him, once the Dream Demon with an insatiable hunger for Knowledge had transported them back to his own abode. Neither side was a stranger to torture, but as a fact Bill enjoyed it more than Will while the Demon of Emotions only engaged in it if someone dared cross him. Saying he had been merely mad would have been an understatement here though. He wasn’t certain there was a good enough word in any language to actually measure what he felt back then and Bill had had to deal with what was possibly one of the worst onslaughts of emotion in existence. Good. He fully deserved that one in Will’s eyes. If anything, he deserved more and the fact that Will had decided to take a nap if simply not to panic over what had just happened, far too fretful to go through every piece of information in front of him even with the grimoire’s gentle energy underneath his fingertips, had been to Bill’s advantage. 

Dipper’s grimoire had been placed back in its space, that little pocket between dimensions protected from everything that Will covered in his own energy. Yes, the grimoire was back in its safe place and the energy away from his physical form, for what Will could only assume might have been a few hours in which he had been passed out. It was away where it could not muddle his thoughts anymore with how exasperatingly calm it was considering everything that had happened. Away and far enough not to bother him as he tried to think everything over and untangled his way out of this mess himself. On his own, as it should be right now. Dipper was dead, the grimoire should not be like this and if it was, it meant too many things he could not process all at once and if that was truly the case then…Well, frankly it was distressing to know his dead soulmate had more weight and logic in such situations even when out of the physical world than he did as an immortal being. The fact that both of his soulmates were far too smart for their own good, as well as extremely capricious with a knack for being right in facts and always getting their way, did not help in the least either. Some of the similarities were uncanny! Perhaps not immediately visible, but definitely there. Even the similarity in some of their emotions was unbelievable. Will would know. He would know best because he could grasp onto the very core of a person and dig through everything, he could surface feelings long dead or bring complete numbness, he could make someone scared out of their wits or make them feel completely at ease. He could reach even through the coldest exteriors and softly caress the emotions lying underneath, luring them out underneath his spell. 

Both his soulmates were like that for a matter of fact. 

It was similar, but not quite the same. 

Bill had always seemed to be lacking on the surface, but those were just appearances and superstitions that he was willing to let others believe. Ah yes, ruthless, emotionless, psychotic, crazy, deranged – Will had heard every little insult directed at his soulmate and it always made him smile a bit as he held on to his little trove of secrets, those little treasures only he could witness. Not that he would defend Bill, most of those accusations were rightfully earned and even he had used them as descriptions several times – his soulmate always took facts as only that in the end – but Will knew those things, that ‘lack of emotions’ other Demons of his type or empathy users saw was simply them getting stuck in everything that made Bill himself before they could reach his core. It would have been rather incredible for them not to. His soulmate was almost omniscient in his knowledge and carried it from long ago and from all kinds of places, just accumulating more and more. Getting caught in that wave or mould or whatever one chose to refer to it as, would have made anyone very confused and extremely lost. It wasn’t as if Bill was easy to read regardless of that first ‘line of defence’, but that made for little matter. 

Will knew better.

His soulmate’s personality may have been all over the place but it was what Will loved about him. His core was there, just not for everyone to see. It was only for him to know and that was where they were so tightly tied together, where others couldn’t hope to reach but where Will felt his emotions as if they were his own. He couldn’t read his soulmate’s thoughts or desires, even his moods were all over the place, but he knew Bill best. He knew the way Bill would caress him, slightly uncertain and perhaps not fully understanding why he was upset more than half the time, but caring and worried for him all the same. Will knew the playful exasperation that turned into dramatic groaning whenever he started crying because of someone else’s sad life story. Knew the unbridled curiosity and joy that surfaced suddenly and out of nowhere, like a new born star, whenever Bill found something new he wanted to explore. He knew the scorching fury that could burn several dimensions to the ground because someone had dared cross his sweet soulmate who was far too merciful on such undeserving fools – to quote him. He knew that mix of curiosity and happiness that wavered in the background and reminded Will of a human’s beating heart rate when near his presence or at the simple knowledge of his existence. Knew that intense emotion deep down that seemed so very small but always remained stable, unchanging and more powerful than the rest, deep down in the depths of knowledge and feelings, the one that translated into such bear, simple and encompassing words like ‘I love you’. 

Oh, he loved him so.

Bill and Dipper were the same in that aspect. It wasn’t easy to reach either emotionally. But where his Demon counterpart had so many unending shields around him – however unintentional some might have been – Dipper’s own emotions were just…different. That could be said for anyone. Everyone was different. But everyone differed in a way that Will could still easily read without trying and could still recognize as something he had seen before. Perhaps Dipper’s weren’t that different…perhaps Will lacked the right words, as it often happened, but he did believe there was something unique regarding his human soulmate. It was almost as if he had a thin layer of ice enclosing any secrets he might have held close to his heart, thin but surprisingly resistant, not a shield as much as a warning.

His emotions always felt so…gentle.

Like the feeling one got from brushing against feathers, like sunshine filtered through that thin ice reaching out, soft and controlled, while still warm and bright. His soulmate, his human soulmate, had always been one inclined to finesse. Impeccable clothing style, always punctual and straightforward without being brash, the type of person who could make murder into a delicate, but complex art form, leaving you agape in the end to stare in awe. Dipper had this sweet, teasing smile Will had come to take an almost painful delight in. It simultaneously made his heartbeat speed up while making his stomach drop, because it was when realization dawned on him that he had unwittingly given him some sort of ammunition against him or had said something he might regret or love later, all purely depending on the mood of his beloved. His beloved had icy skin and a glow reserved only for him, a cutting tongue to most and a longing disposition that showed in deep blue eyes whenever he laid eyes on Will. 

How he had adored him. 

Will cared for both, perhaps in different manners and for different reasons, but one was never considered above the other. There had never been a reason for jealousy. On the contrary, this whole thing was established from the beginning. They knew about each other. Hell, they liked each other! Sure, not to the degree to which Will loved them or they loved Will, but the last cookies and tea date he had arranged for them had gone very well, if he did say so himself. They had talked and laughed and conversed…Bill was always a bit distrusting but made the effort, just as Dipper did. Heavens knew the boy was selfish, even the notion of ‘sharing’ wasn’t exactly welcome, but Will wasn’t an object. Will was his significant other and relationships were more delicate in that regard. Still, that day had been long ago. It didn’t explain what had happened and even amongst all the emotions he might have dug up from Bill in those few moments as he laid in bed – it wasn’t as if he needed more than that – he couldn’t find anything like remorse or sadness or regret. Nothing to say he believed what he did was wrong. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Will was mad at him! The lamp he had spotted on the bedside table flew across the room without warning, directed for the Dream Demon’s head while Will himself got into an upright position, hair a mess and feeling slightly groggy, but more awake than one would have expected.

“Don’t you have a single regretful bone in that body of yours!?” The words were meant to be biting, but a sleepy voice did little to actually cause someone to feel threatened…and the soft oversized blue sweater he was wearing might have also diminished his authority, all the more so when coupled with his current vessel. Point blank, it was hard to threaten someone bigger than you while you were sleepy, in bed, hair a mess and snuggled up in an oversized sweater underneath heavy blankets. Still, it didn’t mean Will wouldn’t try. It wasn’t as if his own powers weren’t more than enough to cause panic in someone. It didn’t matter how he looked, if he wanted to cause someone to fear him he could do it easily and Bill knew he was angry, it was obvious in the air around them. If their bond wasn’t enough for him to take the hint then his earlier attacks, both emotional and physical should have definitely tipped him off by now. He was supposed to be the smart one after all. The lamp Will had thrown with pure energy had smashed against the wall and to the floor, another appearing in its place. Bill was letting him do that to please him, let him blow off some steam…knowledge which somehow made his anger worse. There wasn’t a good reason for this sort of anger, but emotions never needed a reason. It was why Bill had a far more limited understanding of them than Will, even with all his knowledge. 

“Good morning to you too, sleeping beauty.” Cheer, worry, that sweet spark that would have made Will melt any other day…was that frustration? Was Bill frustrated with him? After all he had done, he had the nerve to be frustrated with him!? Bill’s smile made it none the easier. Will had not been kind to him once they had returned. People would have been inclined to consider Bill the more dangerous of the two and would not have been necessarily wrong, that is if they went by whims, but Will was a force of nature all on his own. As it happened, someone emotionally scarred should not be smiling like that but Bill wasn’t just anyone and had dealt with Will’s powers far longer than anyone or anything else. Perhaps Will would be happy about his survival of all of the horrible emotions and sensations he had thrown at him in one go earlier, but right then he was just mad. Bill should have been feeling horrible! Regretful! On his knees! Begging for mercy! At the very least he should have felt sorry, but there was no such emotion on that perfect face of his or anywhere in his equilateral primness. 

The Demon of Emotions passingly noted that Bill had changed his vessel from the short haired one missing an eye that he had been inhabiting at the murder scene. This one had both eyes – golden and inviting and far too happy for Will’s disposition – and the skin was slightly darker, though that may have just been the light. Regardless, Bill’s own vessel stood in stark contrast with his own. Where Bill’s skin was dark, Will’s was as white as the snow and looked almost sickly underneath the warm light of the lamp, blue veins visible on his wrists for whoever cared to take notice. The two golden eyes staring at him were rich and alive, heavy with secrets, while Will’s light blue ones were still waking up as he rubbed them, filled with a more violent sort of liveliness in their soothing depths. The mess of blue hair on Will’s head probably looked worse than a bird’s nest – the least of his worries – while Bill’s own vessel had a long rattail haircut which…well, it suited him well. Will might have even complimented him any other time. As if to top it off, Will’s own vessel was more on the average side: non-threatening, average height around the one of his human soulmate and an almost skinny built that he favoured due to its litheness and ease of movement. Bill, on the other hand, had this rather imposing aura and towered over him. Will didn’t doubt that underneath the yellow sweater and sweatpants there was a strong body as well. His counterpart did love inspiring fear and awe. He did it even more after Will had once passingly remarked that it suited him well. 

Will purposefully ignored the silly greeting, but Bill could feel the tension in the room increasing as an aftereffect. A mix of unease, fear, anxiety and anger waiting to explode with Bill as the target. One had to admit Will was very skilful at using his powers. It was a real shame that visually showing them to others wasn’t possible in all its glory, the amount of awe it could inspire would have been amazing to behold. The amount of power Will could pull just from someone’s emotions could cause some pretty astounding effects on their own. It was a good thing Bill was used to it or the consequences might have been far more dire. He had had his soulmate’s moods influencing and mixing with his own since ages past and while this was a particularly nasty combination, it wasn’t all that different from before. Frankly, compared to what the blue triangle had thrown at him when they arrived, this felt like a field day! With daisies! Maybe dandelions too! As far as changing his vessel went, it had been in Bill’s plans, but it had been there as a refreshment originally! Not because he vomited his guts out when Will decided he needed to die and wasted no time getting down to business, but what could you do? 

“Sheesh, someone’s cranky.” He muttered the words and Will might not have caught them but Will rarely needed to catch everything he said. Will rarely needed to catch anything he said because he could read him like an open book. However, that involved his emotions only, making it harder to figure him out if Will didn’t know his intentions. It wasn’t like Bill was easy to read in either regard. “To answer your question: no. But I do have a funny bone in this form!” Judging by the very strange and uncomfortable way his stomach was moving Bill assumed that was not the answer Will desired. 

Picky. 

Emotions or not, it would have been impossible to determine simply by looking at Bill. He knew how to hide it from others. He also knew it was a useless endeavour with Will, but this was merely a habit at this point. Will knew he was having an effect. That alone should have been more than enough and it had always been more than enough. Emotions were tied to his energy and being, were they not? It should have made him feel better and quenched some of the anger inside him, shouldn’t it? Then why wasn’t it working? There was no visible reaction and somehow that made it all worse, it made him fidgety and his fingers were already hurting where they had started clenching onto the thick covers. He didn’t notice the pain in his human body, but he did notice that there was still no regret, no anything, an invisible void he couldn’t come to accept. There was no indication of what had led to this or why Bill had prepared such a horrible greeting for him. There was nothing and it added to the anxiety quickly building up at the back of his mind. 

He just needed to ask. 

It would be alright. 

If he just asked everything would be explained and maybe he could make heads or tails of what was going on, but what would that help with? Why should he ask? Will couldn’t find what he was looking for. It made him confused and panicked because that blanket of security, knowing what others were feeling and anticipating most emotions and thoughts instinctively wasn’t an actual option when it came down to Bill. He couldn’t figure it out and the worst was that the whole ordeal hurt both of his significant others. One of them was gone, probably forever, and that was what he could not wrap his head around yet. Not ever and especially not like this with Bill not feeling any remorse. They weren’t close enough for Bill to feel sorry for Dipper, but shouldn’t he have at least felt sorry towards Will since he knew what Dipper meant to him!? Part of him wanted to scream at him and part of him wanted to cry and there were a billion and one directions that he felt himself being pulled into, all from inside him, not from the emotions he could sense from others or knew others were feeling, just from his own.

Was he having a panic attack?

He couldn’t tell. It wasn’t as if Will couldn’t experience them, but he had always been in control of his emotions, it was rare for such a thing to happen, especially to him. He couldn’t help it though. Words wouldn’t form and he couldn’t think straight. Maybe just a breakdown? An anxiety attack? Did that even matter!? What would terminology do for him right then!? Dead. Dead, dead, dead, the word repeated itself in his mind like a dull drum that wouldn’t shut up and he felt sick to his stomach. Dead. Not there. What would happen now? Would there be an empty space in his chest? Would he lose a part of himself? Was that why he was feeling like this? Because he had lost something and now it wouldn’t come back and he would never be whole again? No reincarnations, no hope, no spiritual energy…there had been nothing of the sort in the room. Bill had probably destroyed that! But Bill himself was fine the way he was…no, that was a different situation. This was different. What would happen to the grimoire? Would it disappear? Would the magic surrounding it disappear with time? Slowly deteriorate? Destroy itself piece by piece? Become only held into existence and magical, not because of the energy it held but because Will’s own energy alone kept it there? Would all traces disappear from it too? First the magic, then the old runes, writing fading and paper crumbling underneath his fingertips the same way a body decomposed once its host had left the body? Was his breath always so loud? His chest hurt and the beating of his heart seemed to follow its lead, loudly resounding against his eardrums. The word repeated in his mind, faster to the drumming of his heart, like a persistent chant of the ages. 

Something touched his shoulder. Someone filled with warmth and worry that nipped at his own anxiety for the shortest of moments. The ball of emotions that had gathered within him seemed to spill out all at once. Maybe they had already been spilling, but emotions were always vague, strange, changing, hard to grasp. Even if they spilled who was he to say they had or hadn’t? Their possessor? What help was such a title when you couldn’t even control them!? “Don’t touch me!” The words left his mouth without even a thought spared for them. Good. He wasn’t able to think anyway, not in a logical way, not right. Nothing was right. How was he supposed to be able to think!? Something broke all around, facets of dark glass from the countless decorative triangles on the walls going to smithereens and being replaced almost instantly by an energy that wasn’t his own, one that only managed to bring forth feelings of hate from him right then. 

He had swatted the hand away and tried to look at its owner but found he could barely see anything clearly through the tears spilling from his eyes. Eyesight was such a superficial sense, one much more suited for Bill than Will who could probably walk around blind without missing much of his surroundings. He liked seeing, it was nice, but not a necessity. Right then he wished he could see clearly though, just so he could glare at Bill. But all he could do was angrily wipe away at his eyes as he got off of the large bed. There was a crackling sound of glass. Rushed. Different from the waves of the ones disappearing or putting themselves back into patterns. Will could only assume Bill had moved some away from his way before he walked straight into them. He ignored it. “Why did you do that!?” his voice was shrill, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on its target. As they were then he probably made a laughable sight, yelling at someone taller and stronger than him in appearance. Everything was laughable, wasn’t it? Especially him, cry-baby Will, master of emotions losing his grip on reality and yelling at his soulmate for the murder of some stupid, puny human that Bill couldn’t be bothered to care about. No, Bill wouldn’t feel anything. Why would he? He was probably having a damn ball! “Was it fun!? Did you have fun killing him while I was away!?” The accusation was there, drowned in venom. His voice broke a few times but who cared anymore? His throat hurt from the screaming, but that was fine too. “Just because you killed yours, doesn’t mean you had any right to hurt mine!” 

For a still moment the room fell silent, the only disruption finding itself the short pained breaths of the blue Demon, punctuated with the occasional sob. That was…that had been a backhanded comment. One he shouldn’t have made or even thought of, but it was right there and he was just so angry and so tired, so very tired, just so exhausted emotionally. It wasn’t an excuse, but there it was. It was such a horrible thing to say. Any other time he would have been crying at the very thought of it. Cruel. Demons had tiers, human had hierarchies, there were steps and ladders and all sorts of intricacies and complexities no one wanted to get caught up in. Some Demons had soulmates. Bill and Will had been lucky enough to have each other ever since they had come into existence, lucky enough to have someone to complete and adore them to bits and pieces from the very beginning. 

Some beings had more than one soulmate. 

The concept was considered strange and almost unnatural because of its rarity. Being in a relationship with more people was fine, a lot of races, Demons, all sorts of beings did it. It was having more than one soulmate that put most at a loss, since having even one was rare enough. Bill knew more about it, but it had not been something to come up as a topic of discussion more than once or twice. They had each other and Bill hadn’t been interested in anyone else coming into their relationship. It hadn’t been until Dipper that Will had actually recalled the whole thing, mostly because his human partner had a knack for figuring such things out the same way Bill did. It wasn’t that Will couldn’t have, but he was enjoying their life together, he didn’t need things set in stone the same way Dipper did. Bill didn’t think of it either, but only because emotions or soulmates (or rather anyone other than Will) were never his main focus. Bill had Will, he didn’t need anyone else. A few years ago, that ignorance caused the death of his human soulmate when he was taking over a dimension on a whim. It happened and Bill realised it too late, just as Will got there too late to tell him. It wasn’t the end. Reincarnations were a thing but they took time. Time in which there’d be a hole of nothingness eating away at Bill where his soulmate’s presence, where their warmth, was supposed to be. 

It was fairly recent. 

Will shouldn’t have brought it up, but it felt like Bill deserved it after what he had done…didn’t he? 

“You’re right.” The words were soft, gentle. Was that…did he almost feel an ounce of regret there? When Will looked up there was almost a bit of hope in his eyes amongst all the perplexity. He wouldn’t just forgive Bill, but that didn’t mean the presence of that one little emotion wouldn’t make him feel at least a bit better. Well, it would have if Bill had kept his mouth shut, maybe. “Next time I shall make sure to reserve you the honour of killing him and taking out his teeth, robbing you of that was a clear fault in my plan and I recognize my mistake.” 

Will felt like strangling him. 

He felt sick, he was having a breakdown, he was so worried he wasn’t even sure he was reading Bill’s emotions right and all his soulmate could do was joke!? He opened his mouth, not sure what he was about to say, or do for that matter, but never got to even make a sound before Bill cut him off. Till then the room had been Will’s, the territory had been given up. He had been able to do as he pleased: break things, throw things, cry himself a river and do as much damage as he wished to, and everything had been lenient and giving him way to do it, but now he could feel a familiar energy settling in. It wasn’t like his own. His was a flow, soothing like waves washing against the shore, packed with electricity in his anger and coming over you almost unconsciously. This energy was weighty, imposing, one you were consciously aware of. It was there just for pressure, to get his attention and ground him – he could tell that much – yet it still took his breath away for a moment and he gripped his throat as if that would help him breathe again. 

“I might have killed mine, but I never hurt yours.”

Something inside Will was still roaring, wanting for him to scream and trash and harm. But he would be lying if he were to say that the energy around him didn’t have a grounding effect on him even in this state. However, grounding effect or no, that wasn’t what he was hearing right then. “If you have another fancy term for murder, I’m listening.” Bill probably did, but the words were an accusation not a request for a grammar lesson. 

“I actually do! Just as you have another word for Pine Needle! The difference is that mine sounds much better than manipulative self-entitled white boy with anger management problems and fake Victorian aesthetic that makes plants die when there’s a smudge on his second-hand quality shoes.” It was surprising anyone could say that so fast in a human body, but Bill had always been one for impeccable diction and high levels of saltiness mixed with the impossible – that one was hard to deny. 

“Those shoes were not second-hand!” Not exactly the part Will wanted to tackle, but it was hard to grasp much from what Bill was saying all at once.

“And if that was Pine Needle, I’ll eat the shoes.” 

“They weren’t second-hand!” Again, not the part he was trying to grasp onto, but at the very least he appeared to be understanding the words coming out of Bill’s mouth…somewhat. It was a start, considering the jumbled mess that his mind and emotions were in. “And the plants didn’t even, I mean why would you eat the shoes and that was, I” there were a few minutes of just fumbling through words and phrases without much sense. Will found himself very disoriented to put it mildly and by the time he finally managed to make a coherent sentence, consisting of just the word ‘What!?’ in one of the most bewildered tones Bill had ever heard, it had been several minutes. 

Bill had crossed his arms, clearly waiting for him to reach that point. It was likely that he had already anticipated the ending, rather than him to actually be waiting for any sort of sense to come from Will at this point – or any that he might agree to define as ‘sense’ that is. Frankly, that one word had more sense to it than anything Will had said since their reunion and, while small, Bill was willing to accept that as a start towards a normal, proper conversation. As normal as they could get anyhow. He knew Will was confused, though that had not been his intention. He had had good intentions – this time – but had clearly stepped on some toes on the way…also those shoes were definitely not quality made but he’d let it slide for now. It wasn’t as if Bill had meant to cause his soulmate this much distress or any at all for that matter. Seeing Will angry and miserable with him was weird and out of place. 

Unnatural one could say. 

Will could have thrown his full power at him when they arrived back, could have done much worse, all the more so if he truly hated Bill, but not even that would have done as much damage to Bill as seeing his soulmate break down in front of him like this with him as the cause. Bill stood by his decisions and actions, but that did not mean he liked the consequences of them right about then. How hurt was his partner if he would use a card he considered inherently cruel against him? Truth be told, Bill didn’t feel bad about having killed his human soulmate. He should have. It should have hurt. Pine Tree should have been another indispensable piece of him, but their interactions had been so limited before his death that he didn’t feel anything there. Yes, there was an emptiness that bothered him occasionally and sometimes Will looked so sad over it you’d think it was his own burden to bear. In a way, it was, as they were soulmates, but Bill himself wasn’t too bothered by it. The kid would reincarnate sooner or later and, when he did, Will would tell him and things would be solved. This was likely why his words were even giving Will pause right then, because, funnily enough, they were much better at figuring out their soulmate’s human significant other than their own. Shouldn’t have been much of a surprise when you thought of it really. Pine Needle was very inclined towards knowledge and doing things by the book, his magical energy and Bill’s were slightly compatible so recognizing his presence came easier to Bill through magical energy. Pine Tree on the other hand was slightly impulsive, cared far too much about others for his own good and had an impressive ambitious aura about him, most things rooted in the emotional sphere despite his bookish personality, so Will recognized the connection far easier than Bill did. They were better at recognizing them, just clearly not the ones that were meant to be with them. It was a good thing they were already soulmates as Demons, it made finding the human sides much easier. 

At least it should have. 

“That was not your Pine Needle. Now that you’re listening can you please sit down and let me explain?” 

That was a simple enough request, wasn’t it? 

Logical enough. 

A packet of tissues appeared near the more emotional counterpart to help tend to his puffy eyes and sniffling…but perhaps that was not the best idea because Will’s emotions seemed far from having settled, whatever Bill might have thought. Yes, he was willing to listen. He was willing to hear Bill out…but there was something in his tone that he recognized a bit too well. That stupid all-knowing attitude he had. Any other time it might have been soothing, there was a calm, a reassurance and gentleness in things being known and him being safe because Bill was protecting him, but this time it just sparked his anger back up instead and he couldn’t help it. 

“If that was the case, why didn’t you tell me sooner!?” 

Before it started, before things happened, before everything!

“Because he was your human soulmate and it’s not my place to tell you how to cope for his loss! However, I draw the line at idiots emotionally blackmailing you to give them something that doesn’t belong in the hand of a mentally immature Uharianlanian toadstool with mould marks.” The tone was raised and exasperated but by no means violent, not even when Bill lifted his arms to overdramatise…then again maybe he was just very frustrated. Will didn’t know anymore and he wasn’t sure it was worth figuring it out as he took a step back then fell to sit on the bed, trying to process everything all over again. His head hurt…stupid human body and their damned fragility. Once again the packet of tissues floated closer and this time he snatched up a few, blowing his nose and throwing them into the trash-bin. It wasn’t fair. This wasn’t fair. Nothing felt fair. Perhaps what he said wasn’t true, but it sure felt that way right then. 

Pine Needle had been his so why was this taking so long? 

It wasn’t as if they had gotten along from the very beginning, they had worked for it. Truthfully, if it hadn’t been for Will’s patience with the human things might not have happened. Dipper was the one to summon him and it would be a lie to say that wasn’t impressive. Not the summoning in itself, but the whole binding part. Not many could bind a Demon, especially not one of Will’s calibre. If Will had tried hard enough he could have probably gotten away…maybe. If not, he was certain Bill could have gotten him out of there, but he had told his soulmate to wait because he was a bit curious and because this human was a bit cute. Okay, perhaps a lot of cute. Bill didn’t see it but no matter. Plus, Will had never been stuck in the human realm for such a long time or had his vessel’s features chosen for him before. It was a bit new, a bit weird, more than a bit awkward, but kind of fun. 

He still remembered those days vividly…the scribbling of pen against paper as Dipper would write down some new information he had uncovered or that Will had told him, the numerous questions, the plants covering the mansion. He remembered the expensive dresses Mabel would wear and the clacking of her heels as she came to sit with her brother, eyeing him suspiciously but soon enough speaking as if he was but another family friend, in that very posh accent of hers. He recalled days spent lazily on the couch with his head in Dipper’s lap as he read to him from human literature and the way his soulmate would like to fidget with one thing or another as he read…sometimes he’d run his fingers through Will’s hair. He recalled the slight jealousy when Dipper met Bill. He recalled the various notes and scribblings as Dipper worked on perfecting a lost soulmate ritual Bill had found for them. He recalled running out of time. He recalled being given the grimoire imbued with his magical essence…something to hold onto till he returned. Something to return to him once they met again so this time they could do the ritual, so this time they wouldn’t be separated by stupid things such as reincarnation cycles. 

Something to protect till he returned.

Will had sincerely thought he had found him again. Everything seemed so close to what he knew…same mark, just that this one had a star a bit to the side, but that still counted, right? They looked terribly alike. The emotions weren’t that far off either. The ice was missing, but maybe that was a difference in the environment? Just something to do with being brought up in different time periods? His Dipper had lived in the Victorian Era amongst nobility but things were different now in this dimension. It was the same dimension as back then…same dimension, same place, same appearance, same magical properties. Would it not make sense that it should have been the same person? It should have made sense! It wasn’t fair if it didn’t! Time was an illusion and Will knew that much. He would be an idiot to have lived alongside Bill for so long and not know that. Emotions were transcendent, time had nothing to do with them either for the most part. And still, these vague concepts of a supposed ‘time’ still existed. 

Will hated them. 

It had been so long since the Victorian era, he shouldn’t have been weeping anymore, he should have been waiting patiently with Bill at his side, enjoying the time they had together before his human soulmate came back. It wasn’t as if he didn’t want to. He adored Bill and they gravitated towards one another but they also liked their alone time. Nothing of this sort had even appeared in their discussions for such a long while! It was just…those two were so similar, Will had truly believed that it could be the one he had been waiting for. Bill had said that it might not be. Even with the same centre, if someone was brought up a certain way or not moulded the right way, if anything significant went differently or there wasn’t enough of the original core then that person might not end up being the same as they were in a past life. Despite it all, Will had insisted on going. Bill hadn’t intervened and things seemed to go well for the most part…right? They went alright or maybe he had just been deluding himself, that was possible as well. Either way, Bill had only been mindful of his feelings, but Will knew how his soulmate felt about others taking advantage of his kindness. He also knew that while his Dipper and Bill might not have been all that close, they did work together for a while and got along well. Bill did not like him the same way Will did – understandable as Bill had his own destined human soulmate – but he did have some respect for Will’s human soulmate. Kid was smart, Bill could admit that. It shouldn’t have been surprising to figure Bill was also someone who did not want the grimoire with Dipper’s notes to fall into the wrong hands, even if Will was its keeper. 

A good number of tissues and sniffling later, emotions finally finding some sort of semblance of stability, the smaller figure now sitting on the bed felt able to breathe again. Bill always complained about meatsacks – they were fun for small periods of time, just not for too long – and this time Will was inclined to agree. They were simply too fragile. Perhaps leaving this form would have helped him feel better ‘physically’ but he needed a distraction, a lot of distractions, to help him deal with everything that was happening and, while slightly unpleasant, the human body did offer that. He just wished it would be a bit more cooperative: letting him breathe would have been a good start. 

The sound of movement reached his ears, but he needn’t look up to meet Bill’s eyes. Instead, the blond Demon got down on his knees in front of him, bare feet shuffling against the soft carpet, and placed his arms on Will’s lap. This time Will didn’t push him away, instead welcoming the closeness and the feeling of skin against skin. Underneath his fingertips, Bill could feel the coldness of Will’s bare legs where the long sweater couldn’t reach. Even the small hand he caught underneath his own was somewhat cold – leave it to his counterpart to choose a vessel with horrible circulation only to later whine about why Bill insisted on bundling him up in thick blankets. He felt cold and small and so vulnerable underneath his touch as if he might break. Lies. Will was strong, gentle and could be ruthless…but right then Bill could tell his soulmate felt exactly as he looked. He could deny others but who was he to deny his soulmate? If Will felt vulnerable, who was he to deny him the need for safety or invalidate those feelings? Bill’s own skin was warm, a contrast of temperature, pigment and strength, yet he only gave Will’s hand a small squeeze, just so he knew his soulmate was and would always be there, waiting. 

“Feeling better?” The question was patient, almost soft. Patience was not Bill’s strong suit when dealing with people, not unless he was working towards a goal, but the happiness of his counterpart was a goal on its own, wasn’t it? There was concern there, persistent, felt in the reverberations of his voice, and Will wondered if it had always been this pronounced and he had just been too absorbed in his own emotions to notice or, as was his habit, worry about it in turn. Bill wasn’t off the hook yet, not till Will got a clear explanation to put everything in order, but at least he could tell Bill had no intention of hurting him. That should have been obvious from the start. Why would that even be a concern? Bill would never hurt him. Sure, he did a lot of crazy things and teased him relentlessly at times, every so often startled or even scared him, but never hurt him. 

Bill loved him. 

He adored him…

“A little.” Will grabbed another tissue with his free hand and rubbed his nose, eyes puffy and red from crying, tear marks staining his cheeks. Better. Not good, but better, just a small bit. Better was a good start. There was quiet for a moment. Bill was clearly waiting on him, though Will couldn’t tell if it was for him to continue, to throw another accusation or just to feel better. For all he knew maybe Bill was waiting for a signal so he could continue, but as he looked right then his soulmate seemed perfectly content with his position: on his knees. leaning against his legs, arms proper up on Will’s lap as his thumb ghosted old symbols and patterns on the back of his hand, stopping to trace veins and follow along the lines in the palm of his hand…Golden eyes didn’t need to look to his palm for that, he could just feel their way around. Golden eyes needn’t look at him either to see him, not with the countless black glass pyramids embedded into the walls, but they still watched Will closely as he regained some of his composure and teared pride. 

It was hard to blame him for that. 

Bill was also aware that generally Will enjoyed this type of attention on him when it came from someone he adored, it was the type that caused shivers to go down his spine and made him feel safe at the same time. It wasn’t as if Bill couldn’t see him at other times, but facts were facts and Will had been away for a while. It was only normal that Bill had missed him and felt his absence as one would feel a part of them missing. Sure, one might not notice it in the beginning or be bothered by it for a while, but they would soon need it back and desire it to the point that they might go mad without it. Easy logic. Of course, there were a number of things to be taken into consideration when thinking about this alone. Time was not real so the term ‘soon’ could sometimes mean years or decades or even more, all depending on the moods of the two. However, generally speaking, Bill preferred having Will close at hand. They were soulmates. Just being in the other’s presence could put everything back in balance. 

It was soothing even in this vortex of a situation. 

“How did you know?” He prompted after a few moments, another tissue finding its way into the bin. Will wasn’t sure why he was even asking. Of course, Bill would know! Excepting the fact that there was little he didn’t know; he could actually sense Dipper’s energy and recognize it as a perfect fit or not. Will could have tried, but his powers were in a different spectrum that couldn’t have been as clear however much he tried. Bill could have been lying, but that would have been stupid, counterproductive and a waste of time. Will could tell a lie even before it was told and Bill had no reason to hide the truth. Sure, he might not like sharing Will sometimes, but he understood Will needed Dipper. Plus, there was no reason for all three of them not to spend time together every so often and there were countless dimensions with different concepts of time that would allow both sides to have the other for what would be considered the bigger amount of time. Point blank, Will knew Bill was right. He knew there was no need to question it…he just needed some reason, any reason, something more to grasp onto than that trust. It wasn’t because he doubted Bill, but everything had been very…abrupt. He hadn’t fully calmed down yet and having more information, something more clear and rooted in his surroundings instead of in his own mind, would have been a great help. His soulmate was good at helping him with this kind of stuff.

Bill raised an inquiring eyebrow. 

“How didn’t you know?” Will gave him a look that said he was ready to hit him for that comment within the next five seconds – both physically and magically – and had little patience to spare. “Except the whole magic energy thing, I sincerely thought it was kind of obvious.” Will furrowed his brows. Alright, he might have been disillusioned, but he still wasn’t certain what Bill was talking about yet. Plus, when weren’t things obvious in Bill’s eyes? Well, probably when dealing with emotions and his human soulmate, who Will remembered had baffled his partner several times, but that was off topic. “Let’s be serious, when was the last time you won a fight with Pine Needle?” Without delay, Will hit him with a small pillow he had materialized out of the ether, more of a playful hit than something hard, but still a hit with some frustration behind it. 

Bill just chuckled. 

It was good to see Will feeling better. And as much as Will might not like to admit it, he was right. It had been long ago but winning an argument against Pine Needle wasn’t an easy task and, as it so happened, Will tended to lose more often than not. Even when he won, Dipper just had a way of twisting his words around so that Will still felt as if he had lost. There was just no winning with him! Similarly, Bill did the same, but he could sometimes win an argument or two with him, Dipper was just…frankly, Will did not have a good adjective for it, but it could be downright infuriating. Bill moved the pillow away from his face to continue with his next point. 

“And the plants? I mean, sure, there were similarities, but you’ve seen Pine Needle.” Will knew where this was going…he should have noticed this one sooner. Perhaps he did, just didn’t want to acknowledge it, not even now. That was why Bill was his soulmate and counterpart, to fill in what he couldn’t himself. There were many plants back then, so many plants of so many different types, in vases and pots and hanging from the walls and ceilings like a makeshift greenhouse. Will knew them all by heart and called them by names and nicknames as if they were alive. In a way, they were. They used to curl around his fingers when he reached out and catch onto his legs, as if asking him to stay, whenever he left the room Dipper was in or when leaving the house. Dipper’s affinity stood in water and earth and for someone like Will it was easy to notice how easily he blended in with his powers and the energies around him. He had control over them, but more than that it was like he was part of them. There was an effortless beauty about everything bending to his desires, the surroundings changing to let him within their midst as if incorporating him in a painting. There had been plants this time too, just not like back then. 

“Someone in tune with his powers doesn’t cause that sort of reaction. Don’t get me wrong, if the plants dying when he was angry or upset was an aftermath of sustained magical power reacting to his emotions I could have overlooked it, but it was a result of consciously sustained magical power being suddenly cut off.” It was possible, each magic user was different and earth users with a more sensitive core could be prone to negative feelings that then killed the plants they controlled. It was the same thing as someone engaging in self-destructive behaviour. Usually he wouldn’t have put this much emphasis on it being consciously sustained, but it was an important detail in this case. Some people did not sustain a connection to their elements, whether because their magical power lacked or there was a barrier blocking them. 

However, most that were in tune with their elements had their own energy mixing with that around them, hence a sustained connection was created unconsciously so long as there was that inherent harmony. Will’s human soulmate had had that inherent harmony with the elements around him ever since he discovered his magic. The one Bill had murdered while decorating the tree – decorations which had been far better than that gaudy tinsel, seriously what had Will been thinking with that gaudy green? – needed to make a conscious effort to keep up the link to his elements. The whole process had frightened Will in the beginning, Bill knew. It made sense…the only time plants had died around Pine Needle was when he died, leaving the house in a desolate state. “Being magically talented is not the same as being a prodigy. Pine Needle was never out of tune with his elements, there was literally a constant connection. No plants died, on the contrary, the magic reacted violently to anger and even that was controlled.” Which made a lot of sense if Bill were to go by how Will described the other’s core and silent, but vicious anger. A knowing, mischievous smirk pulled at the corner of Dream Demon’s lips as he spoke the next words: “Remember Madame Poudre?” 

Yes, Will remembered her. A conditionally kind soul with that ambition high-class people of her age seemed to wear in layers upon layers. Fittingly, she wore layers upon layers of make-up to the degree that Will wasn’t sure she remembered her actual face as much as the thick powder that covered it. The last time he had seen her she had been boasting about how her appearance was all the rage in Spain. Or was it France? Portugal? Africa? Asia? No, he was pretty sure it was somewhere in Europe, though he couldn’t recall where for the life of him right then. The only reason why he had kept it in mind even vaguely was because he wasn’t certain he wanted to go to that region if all people looked like her back then. At that time, she had been one of many guests at one of the social gatherings Dipper attended along with his sister. Will had gone to get them some drinks at Dipper’s request but had stumbled upon his return, causing one of the glasses to tumble and fall, their contents spilling on the floor and on the edge of the woman’s overly decorated dress. The Madame had been so very cross with Will and the poor boy had avoided her the whole night as to not cause any more tension, whatever reassurances he got. He knew the woman despised him for it and that those reassurances were mostly polite rather than true. 

Dipper hadn’t been mad or upset though. 

Actually, Will wouldn’t have guessed Dipper was off put by what had just happened in the least back then. The boy hadn’t seemed more bothered by the small misstep more than he usually was with these gatherings as they dragged on and started getting weary. Will remembered seeing him later that evening after he had noticed the Madame’s absence. A bit out of his depth, he had asked where she might have gone – after all, Will had always tried to be kind and it had been his fault for ruining her dress, even if it was just a spot or two and her ire was far too great for such a tiny slight. He had needed a moment to turn Dipper’s words around in his head back then, they had been said with such a calm and dismissive tone. ‘I think the plants ate her.’ almost sounded like ‘I think she went to powder her nose.’ when said like that. Bill had the right of it there, Dipper was very in tune with his powers…so much that there needn’t be a conscious effort to get rid of pests. 

‘They’ll probably never find her body, I think it’d decomposing now.’

‘You think?’

‘There are more important matters at hand than the state of a dead body.’ No one should be allowed such grace when speaking. ‘Such as you and I sharing a dance while eyes are not looking.’ Or when dancing. When doing anything for that matter.

The one Bill had killed did lack that finesse, Will would admit. 

“Didn’t he freeze the last person to even try anything like emotional manipulation?” And let his sister cut him into bits for anatomy practice during her painting hours, yes. Dipper was very patient, but his patience was the same as Bill’s in this case: all but unending with Will and all but non-existent to anyone who crossed clearly placed limits. They both seemed to agree that any sort of emotional manipulation directed at Will called for death. “I still consider him a stuck-up noble, but you have to admit the kid had some standards. My point is,” Bill gave Will’s hand another small squeeze. He knew he didn’t like the words he was about to hear but needed to hear them. “that wasn’t Pine Needle. The spiritual plane may look pretty but it’s as much of a mess as anything else – especially the one from dimension twenty-seven along eighty degrees, don’t go there.” The last part was added quickly as an afterthought, a little quirk of Bill’s as his mind drifted from the conversation at hand or recalled something he wanted to mention before returning to his original point. “They might look alike, but it is pretty pointless if they act completely different.” Will would have liked to believe it wasn’t completely different but he knew there had been something missing from the start. “I’m here and Pine Needle will come.” Bill grinned, his thumb rubbing against the back of Will’s hand. “Look at it this way, once he comes you’ll have two people rolling their eyes as you try to pinpoint Pine Tree!” 

The words were said with amusement, but they felt like a stab to the blue haired Demon as his earlier words replayed in his mind. Anxiety flooded right back into him, dissipating whatever grasp of calm he had come to have, though for a completely different reason than before. 

“Bill, I am so, so very sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to, I was mad and sad and I really shouldn’t have said that an-“ He cut himself off abruptly as Bill stood up, feeling dread make his stomach into uncomfortable knots. There wasn’t hate or a grudge or anything of the sort coming from Bill as to make Will feel guilty, but he still did because it went against what he believed in and stood for. Yes, it was Bill’s fault for what he had done – especially for not explaining beforehand – but he still felt like he shouldn’t have brought up his dead soulmate. There was a dull ache in that nothingness where the warmth of his human soulmate should have been. Nothing big but it was there and he doubted Bill would acknowledge it himself. He didn’t seem like he wanted to and he wouldn’t want to worry Will either. 

The bed’s weight shifted as Bill took a seat next to him instead of in front of him and the next thing Will knew strong arms wrapped around him, Bill’s head on top of his. Will’s vessel was smaller and lighter, easily encompassed by Bill’s own…he could see where his skin stood in contrast with his soulmate’s, the rhythmic heartbeat underneath his ears resounding loudly through Bill’s chest as if it were his own. No chant or dread refusing to leave his mind, no emptiness where he thought he might have been left incomplete. Even Bill’s didn’t feel like his own was there anymore for that moment. There was him and his soulmate and there was warmth against Will’s cold hands and tearstained cheeks. The rhythmic pounding of their hearts synchronizing was merely the audible human manifestation of how their energies already entwined as one. Warm…Will realized then the taller, stronger vessel Bill had wasn’t to impress or impose, not this time. It was so he’d be able to envelop him up in his arms and make him feel safe. Wanted. Complete by being just as close physically as they were spiritually. Long fingers caressed his hair, making the mess of blue locks appear almost decent, and he felt at ease even before hearing him speak. 

“You know I don’t care about that.” Liar…not completely, but still a lie. A sweet lie for his own sake that Will couldn’t bring himself to call Bill out on. “You’ll always be more than enough for me, whether I get a human soulmate or not.” 

That was true. 

Will snuggled up closer, moving just enough to straddle Bill, burying himself in the embrace, which elicited a hearty laugh from his soulmate. For a few moments, they just stood like that and for the first time that evening Will seemed to be calm and at peace. His breath was soft and his grip on Bill relaxed as he found a position he was comfortable in. It wasn’t long before they shifted to lay on the bed, Bill leaning on the numerous pillows – making it a point to use the small one Will had earlier hit him with – and his melancholic soulmate happily laying on top of him, one of Bill’s arms securely around his waist. Despite having been up for such a small period of time, Will felt exhausted, but sleeping did not appear all that appealing either. Instead, he just laid there, snuggled up and listening to their synchronizing heartbeats, no other sound in the room except the two of them.

“You know, I think you got that from Pine Needle.” The words gained a late soft murmur from where Will had made himself comfortable on top of him. Taking it as a prompt– along with the curious feeling and warmth the other was sending him through their connection – Bill decided to elaborate. “The pulse part. Remember? He’d sometimes lay down like you’re doing now, just listening to your pulse or feel it when holding your wrist. I think he liked knowing you were real, that you were truly there and wouldn’t disappear yet.” After all, Will might have been bound back then, but he could have gotten away. Could have escaped on his own or could have asked Bill for help. Still, it was likely Dipper might have just let him go if Will had ever asked it of him…

A soft sigh.

“I think he liked knowing we were connected.” Came the soft, almost inaudible murmur of an answer. “It would be harder for him to feel what we do with our energies, but he could feel and hear synchronized heartbeats.” 

“Maybe…”

Bill continued absently playing with the soft locks of hair as he looked down on his soulmate, taking note of his vessel’s appearance as if for the first time, wasting his time with something he knew. Something so very familiar and comforting. Sleep didn’t come. It wasn’t sleep Will needed anyway, just Bill’s presence intrinsically mixing with his own, as it had always been. Just a quiet moment where he could concentrate on that and nothing else. And, on a simpler level, his body against his soulmate’s, heartbeats synchronizing, the simple caring kisses to the crown of his head and the playful stolen kisses to his chapped lips.

**Author's Note:**

> I am not sure what to write here, uhm, I hope you enjoyed reading? Also I did edit this thing but by this point I fully expect to have missed some typos and apologize for that. 
> 
> Also, this fanfic is for a friend for mine so I hope she enjoys it. An attempt was made and this was supposed to originally be more fluffy but someone had to have a freaking breakdown in the middle of my writing so here we freaking are. Also I hope I covered everything in the tags cause I am not sure what I'm doing with those and Gods help me I can find Tad Strange but not Will.


End file.
